Delhi Development Authority to put up 10,000 rejected flats for sale

NEW DELHI: Nearly 10,000 DDA (Delhi Development Authority) flats will be available early in the new year, most of them one-bedroom accommodations surrendered by allottees of the 2014 housing scheme. The land-owning agency hopes to turn around the large scale rejection, unusual for DDA projects, by putting up the flats for sale around March, along with others returned or yet to be allotted under other schemes.

Of the 25,034 houses put on sale under the 2014 scheme, DDA officials say, owners gave up more than 9,000 flats as they found the rooms too small. The scheme, aimed at providing affordable housing to middle class and lower middle class families, comprised over 25,000 houses. Of these 22,627 were one-bedroom units and just 1,800 were two- or three-BHK flats. "A majority of people returned the flats citing extremely small size of the room," said a senior official.

DDA is set to come up with another scheme in December 2016, largely for the high income group.

Sources said DDA had offered the surrendered flats to those in the waiting list. "But the response wasn't encouraging. This is why we have decided to announce a new housing scheme," said an official.

Given the demand for housing, there are bound to be takers for the new scheme, DDA officials believe. Besides, those who turned down the flats did not check the size before applying, they said. "We had told applicants that they can see the flats before applying. If they didn't see it before applying, it is not our fault. We are certain that the new scheme will get a good response," said an official.

"We are drawing up a list of all flats which are ready for allotment. Over 9,000 flats of 2014 scheme have been returned. We are compiling a list of flats which were either returned or not allotted under other schemes as well. Hopefully, we will announce the scheme before March next year," said a senior DDA official. The pricing of the flats has not be decided yet.

Of the 25,000 flats sold under the 2014 scheme, DDA has successfully given possession to just 4,000 owners so far. Nearly 5,000 are yet to get the flats due to incomplete documents while DDA is yet to complete construction of 3,400 flats.